When the crew of of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz have any dental problems, they turn to Lieutenant Commander Mohammad Kamil.
The 40-year-old dentist is the only Indian-American on the warship that is set to drop anchor in the waters off Chennai on Monday.
Kamil said: “I am very fortunate and lucky that I have been able to see the world travelling in the Nimitz and I’m very happy that the ship is coming to India”.
Born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, Kamil migrated to the US 18 years ago.
“I will complete eight years with the US Navy in August this year,” he told a handful of Indian journalists on board the Nimitz. Apart from his medical duties, Kamil acts as a translator. “We do weather reports on the ship and play them from the tower. They are basically advisories for small boats and fishermen at sea about weather conditions. In the Indian Ocean, I translate these reports into Hindi and they are played from the tower so that fishermen can understand them.”
Kamil is also looking forward to a reunion in Chennai with his wife and two children, who are currently in India. “I am coming home as an ambassador of the US. My wife and two kids came to Bangalore a couple of months ago to visit my mother-in-law. They will visit me on the ship once it reaches Chennai,” he said.